Pink Birthday Cake Batter Popcorn

For Bailey's Baby Shower, I made a batch of Pink Birthday Cake Batter Popcorn. I had made this once before to bring to work and used this recipe as a guide. I have tweaked the recipe a little, so below is my version of it. I didn't take any pictures while I was making it because I didn't anticipate blogging about the recipe, so if you need step by step pictures, check out the original recipe I linked above!

 

 

I used:

Yellow popcorn kernels and microwave popcorn popper bowl (similar to this one) cooked according to the directions on the bag. (I think one batch was 1/4 cup kernels) You could just use regular plain popcorn from a bag as well.

Half a block of Almond Bark

1/4 cup Vegetable Shortening (or less)

1 cup Yellow Cake Mix (or less)

Food coloring (if desired)

Sprinkles (if desired)

 

As you can see you pretty much can do whatever you want with this recipe and not mess it up - more or less shortening, more or less cake mix, food coloring, no food coloring, etc. Just don't burn the almond bark! :)

 

First, pop your popcorn using whichever method you choose. Then, set the popcorn aside while you melt your almond bark. (White chocolate will also work for this) I microwave the almond bark for about 45 seconds, stir it a little, and then microwave for another 30 seconds and stir and just repeat until it's all melted. Then add the vegetable shortening. This will help the melted chocolate to be easier to use - more runny maybe... (Not sure if that's the right word to use!) Next, add in the yellow cake mix and stir until it's mixed in well. Finally, add in food coloring if you'd like to make this treat a little more festive!

 

Both times I've made this recipe, I have doubled it. I usually do the first batch of popcorn with the yellow cake mix and the second without and then combine the two batches in the end. I have found that the yellow cake mix makes it very sweet, almost too much, so it's nice to have some of the popcorn just be chocolate covered. If you're just making one batch, you could just halve the yellow cake mix and see how it goes from there. You can use as little or as much cake mix as you'd like! The recipe I found said to err on the lesser side though because too much yellow cake mix makes the chocolate mixture a little too thick... So beware!

 

 

It's then time to mix it together with the popcorn. Be sure to use a big enough bowl so you can adequately stir the popcorn without having a lot of the popcorn end up outside the bowl. Like I said before, I usually do two batches, but I do one batch at a time, so it's a lot easier to stir and be sure all the popcorn is coated. (I can also do my one batch with cake mix and one without a lot easier that way)

 

After it's all covered, you can add sprinkles if you'd like or you could even throw in some other candy with it. I think I prefer it plain, but I might try it with sprinkles sometime just to see how it goes!

 

When you're all done, let it cool and harden and then have at it!

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Community Supported Agriculture

A few months back, I got an email at work stating that all employees at Union Pacific had the opportunity to participate in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program. This would allow employees to enjoy fresh produce while supporting the local Nebraska farm economy. And the best part is that the goods would be delivered to us right at work! Each week for 15 weeks we would get a bag of things like asparagus, broccoli, radishes, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet corn, cucumbers and much more!

 

The program is through Tomāto Tomäto, which is a year-round indoor Farmer's Market that carries locally grown, raised and made products. When I told Trent about the program, we were both excited to have the opportunity to support the local economy and farmers and to start bringing in more fresh produce into our home to eat. Also, a lot of their products are natural or organic, which was also a big plus for us. And since we don't get to pick what we get in our bag each week, this would be an opportunity for us to possibly try some new things that we may not have bought ourselves at the grocery store. (Scary!!)

 

Yesterday was the first delivery of produce to UP. There was a little welcome letter in the bag along with an explanation that things may be a little sparse for the first few weeks but we will get more than our fill of produce as the weeks go on (and when it stops snowing radomly).

This week our bag had:

- Beefsteak tomatoes from Garden Fresh Vegetables

- English cucumbers from Garden Fresh Vegetables

- Romaine lettuce from Pekarek's Produce

- Local raw honey from It's All About Bees

- Fresh corn meal from Clear Creek Organic

Along with the goods in the bag, was a couple recipes with some ideas of how to prepare what was in the bag. There was a recipe for a tomato and basil pasta, a cucumber salad, and corn bread. There was also a little information about the raw honey and its benefits. Like that eating a spoonful of the local honey a day, which means the pollen was collected from within 50 miles, can help to treat allergies to those plants and flowers that are giving a person troubles since those are most likely where the bees are producing the honey from.

Some of those spoonfuls out of there may just be helping Trent's allergies :)

Right away when I got home, we got to eating what we received. Trent had chicken breasts and potatoes on the grill, so I cut up the romaine lettuce to have some salad with supper. I also whipped up the corn bread recipe and we had corn bread for dessert. It was an awesome supper if I don't say so myself!

 

 

I should have taken a picture before I stuck my fork in it,
but I didn't think that fast :)

I am thankful that everything we got this week was "safe" and they were all things I am not afraid to eat! I am definitely looking forward to what the coming weeks will bring!